The present invention relates in general to a cooking utensil and, more particularly, to a cooking utensil comprising means for selecting one of a plurality of cooking items and its associated cooking program information.
Recently, in a cooking utensil such as a microwave oven, an electric heating oven and the like, it has become easier to conduct desired cooking program sequences with the aid of a micro-computer control as disclosed in, say, Fosnough et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,011,428 issued Mar. 8, 1977, entitled "MICROWAVE OVEN TIMER AND CONTROL CIRCUIT".
However, the micro-computer controlled microwave oven as mentioned in U.S. Pat. No. 4,011,428 has still some defects in that the respective cooking program sequences to be conducted should be each introduced into a control circuit by actuating numeral keys with references to a cooking book or the like.
The respective cooking program sequences are defined by heating time periods and power information for a heating source.
Presently, combination cooking appliances meet with public approval. An example of these combination cooking appliance includes a microwave oven and a different heating source oven such as an electric heating oven. In such a combination cooking appliance, however, it is rather complex to introduce the respective cooking program sequences including the heating time periods and the power information to be used because at least two heating sources are being controlled.
The thus stored cooking program sequences are effected in the cooking appliance upon actuation of a start switch.
On the other hand, another type of a microwave oven with programming and control means was proposed for automatically controlling the sequences and durations of application of microwave energy and thermal energy to foodstuffs in the oven, for example, White et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,569,656 issued Mar. 9, 1979, entitled "AUTOMATIC COOKING CYCLE CONTROL SYSTEM FOR MICROWAVE OVENS".
The desired sequences and durations in this U.S. Patent can be introduced into a control network therein by actuating a respective one of a number of pushbuttons each for a particular cooking operation as "warm, "bake", "roast", "crisp" and broil".
However, the particular cooking operation has no concern with the kind of cooking which corresponds to the kind of the foodstuffs to be cooked, for example, roast beef, poundcake and so on.
Therefore, it is greatly desired that a unique cooking appliance, in particular, a combination cooking oven be capable of developing the desired cooking program sequences which are preliminarily stored therein in response to manual actuations of keys, the cooking program sequences corresponding to the kind of the foodstuffs used.